Corn for Eyes

Have you ever felt blur in your eyes or you cannot see something clearly? Watch out! It is an early symptom of eye disorders like AMD (Age Related Macular Degeneration) and cataracts.

AMD and cataract are the major causes of vision loss or blindness. AMD is caused by the damage of macula of retina. It is a part of retina that enables us to see high resolution objects. If it is damaged, the sick cannot see the detail of the objects clearly. While cataract is a clouding appears in the crystalline lens of the eye. Cataracts usually progress slowly to cause vision loss which later can be potentially blindness if it is untreated.

Therefore, we should prevent the eyes disorders by keeping our eyes healthy. What do you eat to keep your eyes healthy? Most of you will answer carrot and tomato. The reason is because carrot and tomato are rich of vitamin A.  Vitamin A can indeed keep our eyes from drought or the so-called Xerophthalmia. It can also slow the progression of cataract.

In fact, to keep our eyes health, we need not only vitamin A, but also vitamin C. Vitamin C can help improving the cells functions in retina. If you are a smoker, drinker, or diabetes, you need to intake vitamin C more than those who are not.

Beside those vitamins, we also need lutein to keep the retina’s health and zeaxanthin to decrease the risk of cataract. Lutein and zeaxanthin are naturally he two primary xanthophylls carotenoids contained in retina. Within the central macula, zeaxanthin is the dominant component, whereas in the peripheral retina, lutein predominates. Lutein helps to keep the eyes safe from oxidative stress and absorb and the high-energy photons of blue light. While, zeaxanthin would bind free radicals that can damage cells in retina.

Corn is one of vegetables which rich of lutein and zeaxanthin. Besides, it also contains vitamin A and vitamin C that can keep our eyes moist and slow the forming of cataract. Antioxidants in corn can help to keep retina and strengthen the optic nerve. Therefore, we can have a complete package to keep our eyes healthy by consuming corns.